Post by Juliana on Dec 6, 2017 0:20:51 GMT 9

I am due with baby number 3 any day now and I have to admit that my efforts have been waning the closer and closer I get to delivery. Just so exhausted! My boys are getting tons of majority language input, and I just can't keep up. I try to read and watch shows with them at least, and talk as much as I am able, but it's not anything like it was a few months ago. I know it's just a phase, but does anyone know anything else I can be doing to boost minority language input when I am just not myself? I tried looking for minority language child care, but couldn't find anyone. My boys are 4 and 2 if that helps.

Post by Amy on Dec 6, 2017 6:38:11 GMT 9

They are young, which makes it even harder. Do your children speak ml a little or not at all?

We'd need to know a little more about your circumstances and what you already do with them, so as to be able to give useful tips.

Beyond the talking, do you read to them in ml, play ml cartoons, play ml nursery rhymes, play ml radio/TV in the background? Why not make the most of the festive season to teach them some Xmas song if they don't know any yet?

Would your other half be alright about maybe decreasing the ML exposure and replacing it with a bit more ml TV, music, radio...?

Amy

***"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars" - Oscar Wilde***

Post by Juliana on Dec 6, 2017 6:49:17 GMT 9

I'm so sorry, yes of course. Pregnancy brain forgot to give any details.

We live in the US, I (normally) speak mostly Spanish to my boys, but it is not my native language (hence the difficulty speaking it when I don't feel well). Under normal circumstances, the whole day prior to my husband coming home from work is in Spanish, including books, TV, music, and conversation. We live in a rural area without a lot of outside Spanish resources, so it's mostly just up to me.

My 4-year-old speaks above average English (majority language)and understands everything I say in Spanish, but really struggles to speak it past basic words and phrases. Given the limited exposure, I'm OK with this for now, but have also included more formal "Spanish time" to help him work on this. My 2-year-old does not speak much at all yet, just isolated words, and uses about 50-50 Spanish and English.

Normally I feel pretty good about our system...it's not perfect, but it works for us. The trouble is when I'm not feeling my best, a lot suffers because all minority language input depends on me. I guess I'm looking for activities where I don't have to think so hard and can still expose them to Spanish until things settle down again.

Post by Amy on Dec 6, 2017 18:46:19 GMT 9

Thank you Julianna! You do seem to do an awful lot already!

Do you play board games with your eldest son? Have you thought of using Spanish activity books with him in some kind of little homework routine? These get you to speak without having to do much thinking, plus they can be good fun (my eldest whose 5 enjoys board games and even activity books).

If that can reassure you, my eldest daughter took a whole year of exclusively speaking her 2 mls at home (ML banned when age 4) before speaking properly, and even now (a year later after banning ML) her sentence construction needs working on though she now uses no ML words in her phrases. It seems to be a long process in their little head. All we can do is be patient, and rephrase correctly whenever they have said something that is a bit wonky.

I recently read an interesting post about parents teaching 2 languages (that is 1 parent with 2 languages), some use the place technique like the Time and Place / Context: parent chooses either a time or a place to speak a specific language; e.g: language 1 inside the house, and language 2 outside or language 1 when alone and language 2 when with people. The other option is having a special room/corner of room dedicated to a language, placing all of ml books and activities in this place. Could these ideas be of any help to increase exposure and use of the ml? The latter could be particularly useful for your younger children as they don't/won't talk yet....

Hope this can give you ideas though you shouldn't add any pressure on yourself at this very special time of your family life. Let your little bundle of joy arrive, enjoy it, just keep up with your usual ml activities if you can. When everything settles down again, then consider more activities. Don't try doing too many things at the same time, you will only stress yourself out and feel frustrated and worse for it. I totally relate to the heavy burden of being the only ml source. It sometimes makes you feel very low. But perseverance pays off. Just don't lose sight of this.

¡Animo Juliana! And congratulations for this upcoming little bundle of joy!

Amy

***"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars" - Oscar Wilde***

Post by Adam Beck on Dec 8, 2017 14:48:24 GMT 9

I am due with baby number 3 any day now and I have to admit that my efforts have been waning the closer and closer I get to delivery. Just so exhausted! My boys are getting tons of majority language input, and I just can't keep up. I try to read and watch shows with them at least, and talk as much as I am able, but it's not anything like it was a few months ago. I know it's just a phase, but does anyone know anything else I can be doing to boost minority language input when I am just not myself? I tried looking for minority language child care, but couldn't find anyone. My boys are 4 and 2 if that helps.

Juliana, given the circumstances, I don't know if this is a realistic suggestion, but one good possibility might be "Mommy TV": shooting some videos of yourself reading books, singing songs, talking to the camera, etc. and then making regular use of these videos to sustain some exposure with your boys when you're unable to do this actively.

I often recommend this "cloning" idea when the minority language parent is working outside the home, but it could also be a valuable source of input in a situation like this.

In any event, I encourage you to take the long view of your bilingual journey and be patient with yourself when it's difficult to do as much you'd like. Persistence is important, it's true, but as long as we do our honest best over the full length of the childhood years--while taking the breaks that are needed--we'll still experience a lot of satisfying progress over time.

I wish you all the best with the delivery and beyond!

Adam Beck is the founder of Bilingual Monkeys and The Bilingual Zoo, and the author of the popular non-fiction book Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability amzn.to/22XKuCt and the humorous novel How I Lost My Ear amzn.to/2EsjVRS, both available worldwide.

Post by Marie on Dec 12, 2017 16:45:27 GMT 9

Would you be able to get an au pair? This would help massively, as you will have an extra pair of hands to help with the kids and speak Spanish. You could even get one as short as one month if you are not sure. If not, the main options are TV, iPad games in Spanish, YouTube, music. Also, books that say Spanish words. There is an Usborne sound book in French and I'm sure there is one in Spanish. Also the cloning idea Adam mentioned is a great idea.

Post by Juliana on Dec 14, 2017 22:19:35 GMT 9

Thank you all for the ideas! Baby number 3 arrived a week ago and the transition is going as well as can be hoped. Right now I'm just trying to take advantage of every opportunity I can to read to my big boys and choose TV in Spanish. When I can, I still speak to them in Spanish, but, while all the help we have been receiving is awesome, I struggle switching between languages (I'm sure sleep deprivation isn't helping). However, I know it's only temporary and have been using this time to plan out some Spanish "lessons" to get us back on track once things get back to normal. Again, thank you all and if you have any more ideas, please keep them coming!

Post by Carrie on Dec 19, 2017 5:32:53 GMT 9

I guess I'm looking for activities where I don't have to think so hard and can still expose them to Spanish until things settle down again.

Hi Juliana,

Congratulations on your new little one! I hope things are going well.

I just wanted to pop in with a couple suggestions, since I can totally relate to the non-native fatigue of trying to think in your second language while exhausted from normal life. I often try to use activities where a lot of the language is given to me. For example, doing an art project could be a great ml activity, but you have to generate all the language yourself. By contrast, there are a number of games/activities out there that provide the language. Here have been some of my recent favorites:

Another idea is to tape up some songs/poems/nursery rhymes in areas where you spend a lot of time with the kids, for example above the changing table. Here's a few ideas of some pages you could tape up.

Post by Adam Beck on Dec 19, 2017 10:25:26 GMT 9

Juliana, congratulations! Feel free to share a photo of your happy baby at the New Babies board, if you like.

I'm sure this is an exhausting time, so definitely be kind to yourself, but also keep up your efforts to provide language exposure, as best you can. Carrie's suggestions and links could be very helpful toward this end.

Adam Beck is the founder of Bilingual Monkeys and The Bilingual Zoo, and the author of the popular non-fiction book Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability amzn.to/22XKuCt and the humorous novel How I Lost My Ear amzn.to/2EsjVRS, both available worldwide.

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